History Repeating...

It looks like the bundle bubble that hit the Mac indie software scene after MacHeist and MUPromo hit it big is hitting the indie game development scene too. A lot of us know about the original Humble Indie Bundle (and its sequels, the HIB 2 and HIB 3) but look at what's been coming out over the past several months:

Thank you for reminding me of my relative lameness for posting this topic in the wrong forum, originally. Bah.

JMarkevich wrote:

I bought most of the HIB and one of the IndieRoyale bundles so far. I like having cross platform versions of the games thrown in to the MH bundles, whether I really need them or not.

The problem is that these bundles are now going through the same growing pains that we saw with all of the Mac software bundles. I've bought all of the Humble Bundles so far, but now I've got something like 2-3x copies of games like Gish, Aquaria, Machinarium, and Braid. With instances like the HIB 3, they had this insane deal where if you paid more than a certain amount you got not only the HIB 3 games, but the HIB 2 games as well.

Over at the GoodOldGames.com forums, I'm seeing a lot of familiar questions and issues being raised:

a) These bundles are bad because it drives down expectations for the pricing of indie games

b) These bundles are good because it boosts an indie dev's visibility among gamers

c) These bundles are bad because it encourages people to wait for sales instead of normally buying games on release, potentially putting indie devs in financial jeopardy

d) These bundles are good because they massively boost sales, potentially keeping innovative indie dev houses afloat (if anyone remembers, Introversion Software, the company behind Darwinia, Multiwinia, Uplink and Defcon, was on the verge of bankruptcy when Steam sales practically saved them; and on Twitter, they announced that the last Humble Bundle effectively doubled their entire customer/user base.)

...and so on. As I mentioned over there, my fear is that when people stop buying these bundles due to overall "bundle fatigue" and repeats, it may end up causing significant harm to indie devs if a bundle ends up losing money or doesn't wind up with significant sales.

I love DRM-free indie games as much as the next guy, but this is sheer ridiculousness.

I don't think the next guy cares about DRM-free indie games. Outside of bundles, most of these games I would have never heard of. Most people would rather play Halo 4 through 10 instead.

They'll certainly care about DRM-free games. Especially when just about every major publisher like Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard has been slapping things like persistently-online DRM into their games, DRM so obnoxious that it's little different from a streaming rental game from OnLive.

Then again, maybe you're right, and they'll be too busy playing Modern Warfare 13 to notice.

I think a lot of these developers are going to suffer from a lack of audience. You will practically have to distribute your content via a closed system (App Store, Console gaming) to get to the customers. I left out Steam on purpose: Computer gaming is past its prime. Who even bothers maintaining a gaming rig anymore? Just buy a console; your hardware costs are maybe as little as a tenth of what it costs to keep a gaming rig current as long as the platform will last, and the games cost nearly the same.

your hardware costs are maybe as little as a tenth of what it costs to keep a gaming rig current as long as the platform will last, and the games cost nearly the same.

If Apple has taught me anything, it's that quality doesn't equate to enjoyment. I enjoy my 256kbps AAC files more than I used to enjoy CDs. They're more convenient and the quality loss isn't important. And cheap iProduct games can be just as enjoyable as more expensive casual PC games.

For pure gaming, I own an Xbox 360, a Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo 3DS. I typically buy games used or on sale, six months past when they come out.

I have a whole mess of platforms/consoles, and they all have their strengths. I like strategy games, and couldn't imagine using a console for that... and for my other obsession of driving games, though I have more than a few on the PC, I never play them. The PS3 - or even the PSP - works much better for that. I can't really get into using the iPhone for driving games, though Real Racing 2 is very good.

These indies seem to be naturally built for a PC and casual use. I'm fine with that, as I need something I can play while "watching TV" with my wife.